What free press?

I want to introduce you to Sheila Samples. She is an Oklahoma writer who publishes on Smirking Chimp from time to time and I always appreciate and respect what she has to say. The article I'm linking to today is entitled, "Butt prints in the sand..." and is an eloquent rant about the way our news media have let us down.

Face it. Bush gets away with murder for just one reason -- because the media allows it, encourages it, and spends big bucks producing it. Bush's war-on-evildoers-turned-war-on-terror-turned-regime-change-turned-crusade-for-freedom-and-democracy is a media-orchestrated production, complete with banners, flag backdrops, bells and whistles. In case you haven't noticed what the rest of the world knew at the outset -- the illusion of Bush as a strong, principled leader is also a media creation. Totally.

She concludes this way:

The darkness is closing around us. If ever there was a time in our history for the media to just do the right thing -- that time is NOW. It's time the media faced the fact that, sooner or later, Bush will pick a fight with someone who's capable of fighting back, and then ratings and profits won't matter. When that mushroom cloud hits the fan, it will affect us all, and it will be too late to do anything about it.

Please read the entire article. The Smirking Chimp community has really responded to this example of Sheila Samples' insight and, as I write, there are 28 comments posted. I imagine that number will grow throughout the day. This issue of a complicit press in the insanity of the current administration is a critical one for us today. Perhaps the most critical of all.